Someone's Eating My Platys!

[Lizzie71]

I have a 60l tank with 3 zebra loaches, 1 BN plec, 4 platys (well 3 now, see below) and 5 x-ray tetras. Tank has been running for 3 years and is fully cycled, no problems with water quality.

The zebra loaches and platys were bought about 2 weeks ago. The loaches were bought to cure a snail problem which they have, but I suspect they have also been attacking the platys.

I have one platy with half its tail gone, looking very ragged. Then today I found a dead platy (not the one with the bitten tail). This platy had its tail missing when I found it, but it could have been nibbled after dying so that isn't necessarily the cause of death.

Could the loaches be responsible? Should I get rid of them?

PS apologies for double posting but I wasn't getting any response in the loaches forum.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Any chance the Platys are getting nasty amongst themselves, or prehaps the X-Ray Tetras nipping at the fins of the Platys?
How big are your fish? If some are appraoching adult size, you could well have some overstocking aggression going on.

The loaches aren't normally aggressive, but then again my Lionhead Cichlid parents forgot they are not supposed to injure and kill the "dither" fish in their 240l tank to show them that there is no impending danger!

 

[pinkspider]

Any chance the Platys are getting nasty amongst themselves

I've experienced this in the past, and quite recently as well.

I used to have a group of 20 Platys with only a few Guppies and Neons to keep them company.

I introduced some Zebra Danios and within a few days my Platys had started to look battered and I lost a few within the space of a week.

At first I thought it was the Danios fin-nipping and harassing them, but then I sat and watched them and realised it was the Platys taking chunks out of each other.

They settled down after a few weeks of the arrival of the Danios and I haven't had any problems with them since.

Alys

 

[Lizzie71]

Any chance the Platys are getting nasty amongst themselves

I've experienced this in the past, and quite recently as well.

I used to have a group of 20 Platys with only a few Guppies and Neons to keep them company.

I introduced some Zebra Danios and within a few days my Platys had started to look battered and I lost a few within the space of a week.

At first I thought it was the Danios fin-nipping and harassing them, but then I sat and watched them and realised it was the Platys taking chunks out of each other.

They settled down after a few weeks of the arrival of the Danios and I haven't had any problems with them since.

Alys

You have hit the nail on the head. I just saw one of the two healthy platys attack the injured one. Not sure what to do for the best as he's looking rather ill and having trouble swimming. Weird thing is that the aggressor is a fish that I am 99% certain is female, and the dead and injured fish are both males.

Any advice how to help the injured fish? I don't have another tank I can move him to.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Can you put the injured fish in one of your "fish only buckets" with a small spare (but cycled) filter? You could then give it daily water changes and if the wounds are serious, contemplete adding medication to the water, such as Myxazin.

 

[pinkspider]

You have hit the nail on the head. I just saw one of the two healthy platys attack the injured one. Not sure what to do for the best as he's looking rather ill and having trouble swimming. Weird thing is that the aggressor is a fish that I am 99% certain is female, and the dead and injured fish are both males.

Any advice how to help the injured fish? I don't have another tank I can move him to.

From experience, the females are generally more aggressive.

Out of interest, how many males do/did you have in comparisson to females? I always try to keep them at a ratio of 1 male to every 3 females. This way it tends to dilute any aggression and also means there aren't too many males always harrassing the females.

As for ways of seperating the injured fish without having another tank - you could try purchasing a breeding net or breeding box. They're generally about £6 from Aquatics retailers, or larger establishments such as Pets at Home. But if it requires treatment you may want to look at finding a small bucket or container that could fit a small filter with some cycled sponge/media in and try medicating.

I always have one to hand in case I see a fish having difficulty.

Alys

EDIT: N0body Of The Goat beat me to it

 

[Lizzie71]

Can you put the injured fish in one of your "fish only buckets" with a small spare (but cycled) filter? You could then give it daily water changes and if the wounds are serious, contemplete adding medication to the water, such as Myxazin.

Sadly I don't have a spare filter, so no I can't do that without going out and buying one. The wounds are currently only to tail and fins which is why he is struggling with swimming a bit. I will add some stress coat and see what happens.

In the longer run, should I get rid of the two remaining platys or hope things settle down?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How about an existing breeding net that could be hooked onto the side of the tank, again doing daily ~25% water changes to help healing?